The present invention relates, in general, to brushes and, more particularly, to brushes for cleaning the bores of gun barrels.
The firing of rounds in a gun causes combustion by-products to collect on the inner wall of the gun barrel. Further, the inner wall is mechanically abraded by the projectile on the round and the unburned solid particles of the charge, resulting in the accumulation of erosion substances in the bore. The accuracy of a gun is dependent on the condition of its bore. Uncontrolled build up and erosion in the bore will render the gun ineffective or unsafe. Proper care of the gun barrel involves removal of the collected combustion by-products and the erosion substance from the bore without any appreciable scouring and defacement of the inner wall.
Heretofore, the cleaning of the bore of a gun barrel employed brushes with metal bristles. Such metal bristles bend and deform under normal use. The deformation of the metal bristles renders the brush ineffective to remove combustion by-products from the bore and contributes to scouring of riflings, aggravating the erosion of the bore. Degradation of a bore due to scouring of riflings by metal bristles is highly undesirable. Further, various caliber guns have different bore dimensions which require a matching brush size for effective cleaning. Choosing the correct brush size, among for example, a batch consisting of several sizes, is difficult, particularly when cleaning guns with small caliber size differences.
The Adelmann U.S. Pat. No. 1,979,240, issued on Nov. 6, 1934, for Brush For A Washing Machine, discloses stainless steel bristles and wooden bristles. The wooden bristles tend to keep the steel bristles in their original position after displacement during normal use.
In Hattori U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,019, issued on Jun. 1, 1965, for a Circular Brush, there is disclosed a brush with symmetrical rows of clusters of natural fiber bristles and a row of clusters of metal wire bristles. The intermixing of the wire bristles with the natural fiber bristles provides elasticity and thereby improves the cleaning performance of the brush.
In Inskip U.S. Pat. No. 1,516,438, issued on Nov. 18, 1924, for Implement To Scour Rifled Firearms, discloses a device which compresses a cleaning rod with short leather sliding scouring collars and loosely fitting metal washer collars. The metal washers are used as spacers.
In Sipple et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,223, issued on Apr. 9, 1985, for Gun Cleaning Tool, there is disclosed a cleaning tool with three tips for cleaning various parts of a gun. The three tips are removably insertable into a handle. The first tip is made of bristles. The second cleaning tip has a woven cotton cover fixed to it. The third tip has soft cotton fibers.
The LaLonde U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,386, issued on Oct. 19, 1993, for Brush For Cleaning Interior Of A Tube Or The Like, discloses brush bristles secured to a wire. A section of the wire is free of brush bristles and is covered by a non-abrasive, plastic cylindrical body to form a handle and an extension of the brush.
The LaLonde U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,439, issued on Nov. 6, 1990, for Device For Cleaning Wind Musical Instruments, discloses a device for cleaning an inner wall of a tube for a wind musical instrument. The device includes a semi-rigid rod formed of separable half sections which define, when contiguous to one another, an axially directed slit. A removable cloth is secured within the slit between the confronting walls of the half sections that are contiguous to one another.